Measures to kick-start work at a major housing development have been approved.

Leicester City Council has secured planning consent for changes to the way 3,000 homes will be built at Ashton Green, near Beaumont Leys.

The council has failed to attract a developer to take on the entire 320-acre site, so sought to divide it up in smaller sections.

The council can now bring forward smaller parcels of land for development, to help encourage interest and competition among developers.

Ashton Green will include parks, highway and public transport improvements and a range of education, health and community facilities.

Some of the more complex transport improvements have been postponed until later in the building programme, meaning developers will not have to contribute to the costs of the full infrastructure up-front.

Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "Ashton Green will be the most significant and innovative housing scheme in Leicester for more than 30 years and will be key to meeting our target for new homes needed in the city over the next 20 years.

"We are very keen to get work under way on this important housing development and these changes are a big step forward in achieving that.

"The amended plans mean the scheme is a more attractive prospect to would-be investors. "We will continue to work closely with developers to ensure the scheme meets the standards we have promised."

4 comments

The council missed the boat on this one as far as investors are concerned. I worked on a bid for this development for one of our national house builders back in 2001/2. We had a team of people working on the bid and committed quite a lot of money into the bid preparation. The council just prevaricated and ended up not accepting any of the developer bids. They just wasted our time and money and missed getting a good price for the land.....

I wonder if the developers will be asked to provide extra beds at the A&E, its ok having new local education and health facilities and even good that it is to be innovative. However, 3000 new homes will have an adverse effect on central services like the Royal or major roads in the area what of that then?? Can we see some strategy fori these too or is that too much to hope for

I see SPS has conveniently not revealed the number of new homes supposedly "needed in the city over the next 20 years", why not.
Let's have some transparency on this issue once and for all. How many are required to be built, what is the number for the City of Leicester and how many are in the pipeline having been approved already?
Answers please!!

Quote: "Some of the more complex transport improvements have been postponed until later in the building programme"...
Absolutely the wrong move. The reason travel around the city is so difficult is that for 60/70 years development has taken place without consideration for the movement of people - it seems the motto Semper Eadem is quite appropriate.